Dorothea lange photography style
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Dorothea Lange (United States, 1895-1965) believed in photography’s ability to reveal social conditions, educate the public, and prompt action. Though she is best known for her depression-era photographs that came to shape our view of one of the most tumultuous eras of American history, Lange’s career was long and varied. Her keen interest in the lives of ordinary people led her to travel and photograph diverse subjects across the U.S. and around the world. The MoCP holds over 500 original works by Lange from a generous donation from Katharine Taylor Loesch. Taylor Loesch was the daughter of Dorothea Lange and economist Paul Schuster Taylor (1895-1984), Lange’s collaborator and second husband.
This curriculum guide focuses on Lange’s work documenting the Dust Bowl for the Farm Security Administration. A downloadable version can be found here.
The museum is generously supported by Columbia College Chicago, the MoCP Advisory Committee, individuals, private and
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By Bryan Corbin, Storyteller magazine editor, and Jessica Nelson, Ph.D., director of tro and culture initiatives
Dorothea Lange (1895-1965)
Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, 1936
Gelatin silver print, 32 x 26 inches (framed)
art2art Circulating Exhibitions
The most iconic image of the Great nedstämdhet is Migrant Mother, a 1936 photograph of a family facing stark poverty. The mother is seen cradling her infant, her two older children burrowing their faces into her shoulders. Their tattered clothing and lean-to tent reflect the economic catastrophe that befell the family and many others. With worry lines etched into her weathered features, the mother’s weary expression conveys both desperation and determination as she gazes into the distance toward an uncertain future.
Migrant Mother created a national stir when it first was published in newspapers in 1936, and it has been reproduced innumerable times since. The black-and-white image is the best-known wor
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Dorothea Lange
American photojournalist (1895–1965)
Dorothea Lange (born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn; May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Lange's photographs influenced the development of documentary photography and humanized the consequences of the Great Depression.[1]
Early life
[edit]Lange was born in Hoboken, New Jersey[2][3] to second-generation German immigrants Johanna Lange and Heinrich Nutzhorn.[4] She had a younger brother named Martin.[4] Two early events shaped Lange's path as a photographer. First, at age seven she contracted polio, which left her with a weakened right leg and a permanent limp.[2][3] "It formed me, guided me, instructed me, helped me, and humiliated me," Lange once said of her altered gait. "I've never gotten over it, and I am